A synopsis of the story

Mary Poppins Returns is a sequel to the original Mary Poppins movie, based on the books by P.J. Travers and set in London in the 1930’s. Michael Banks (Ben Whishaw) and his sister Jane (Emily Mortimer) are now adults and Michael has three young children, Anabel (Pixie Davies), John (Nathaniel Saleh) and Georgie (Joel Dawson). Sadly, Michael’s wife died the previous year and he is struggling to bring up the children and maintain the house and finances on his own. The bank is about to foreclose on his house as he has fallen behind in his loan repayments. It is at this auspicious moment that Mary Poppins (Emily Blunt) arrives, flying in on her umbrella, to take over the care of the children.

The children are at first reluctant to have Mary Poppins as their nanny, but it isn’t long before she wins them over with her magic and charm. Along with Jack the candle lighter (Lin-Manuel Miranda), Mary Poppins and the children have many wonderful, magical adventures. Mary Poppins is always there when needed and in her own magical way turns events around.

Children and adolescents may react adversely at different ages to themes of crime, suicide, drug and alcohol dependence, death, serious illness, family breakdown, death or separation from a parent, animal distress or cruelty to animals, children as victims, natural disasters and racism. Occasionally reviews may also signal themes that some parents may simply wish to know about.

Research shows that children are at risk of learning that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution when violence is glamourised, performed by an attractive hero, successful, has few real life consequences, is set in a comic context and / or is mostly perpetrated by male characters with female victims, or by one race against another.

Repeated exposure to violent content can reinforce the message that violence is an acceptable means of conflict resolution. Repeated exposure also increases the risks that children will become desensitised to the use of violence in real life or develop an exaggerated view about the prevalence and likelihood of violence in their own world.

There is some violence in this movie including:

The children have a fight over a precious porcelain bowl, left to them by their mother. They squabble, and the bowl ends up breaking.

Doing a dance, Jack whacks a cartoon penguin with his walking stick; kicks another penguin and hooks a penguin with his stick and tosses it away.

A wicked wolf (cartoon) steals Georgie’s toy (a giraffe his mother had made for him) and lures him away with it. He captures Georgie and locks him in a cage attached to a carriage. He then takes off with Georgie and John and Anabel chase after them.

Anabel hits a wicked badger (cartoon) with a cricket bat and he falls out of a carriage.

All the children fall out of the carriage and go over ‘the edge of the bowl’.

Michael Banks gets very angry with his children and gives them a good telling off.

Children aged five to eight will also be frightened by scary visual images and will also be disturbed by depictions of the death of a parent, a child abandoned or separated from parents, children or animals being hurt or threatened and / or natural disasters.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

Michael is very sad when he looks through his wife’s belongings in the attic.

Georgie gets dragged along by a kite in the wind and nearly takes off into the air but is saved in time.

The children have a bath in which they all go down the plughole in a whirl to enter a fantasy undersea environment.

The scene in the Royal Doulton Ball where Georgie gets taken by the wolf is quite scary and intense, as the children have to fight off the creatures to save Georgie. It turns out to be a dream (or nightmare) and Georgie is quite upset when he wakes up from it. He also says how much he misses his mother.

The children and Mary Poppins get lost in the fog.

After Michael gets angry with the children he starts to cry and says he doesn’t know what to do.

Jack dangerously climbs up Big Ben. He steps out onto a ladder and nearly falls off.

Children over the age of thirteen are most likely to be frightened by realistic physical harm or threats, molestation or sexual assault and / or threats from aliens or the occult.

Nothing of concern.

Product placement

None of concern.

Sexual references

None of concern.

Nudity and sexual activity

None of concern.

Use of substances

None of concern.

Coarse language

There is some infrequent coarse language in this movie, including:

Bloody

Blasted

Blimey

In a nutshell

Mary Poppins Returns is a Disney family movie that older children and adults can enjoy. There are some dark moments and much sadness, which might affect younger children. Mary Poppins’ positive outlook on life is very uplifting, however, as is the music and dancing.

The main messages from this movie are that much can be gained from imaginative play and to never forget your inner child.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

Empathy

Compassion

Magic and fun

Importance of family

Resourcefulness

The power of positivity

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as.